“New Dallas Skyline” — 1913
by Paula Bosse
Dallas skyline panorama detail, 1913 (click for larger image)
by Paula Bosse
On April 1, 1913, one of Dallas’ most prominent photographers, Jno. J. Johnson, took a wonderful panoramic photo of the Dallas skyline. Dallas was, even then, boasting an impressive skyline. I’ve zoomed in a bit on the photo, breaking it down into four separate images. Johnson’s original photograph, titled “New Dallas Skyline — April 1, 1913,” is below. (Click to enlarge all images.)
(Click this photo!)
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Below, the first portion of the photo.
E. Eppstein & Co., wholesale distributors of whiskey and cigars, was at 1300-1302 Jackson.
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Above, the second portion, showing S. Akard Street, looking north — at the end of the street is the 6-month old Adolphus Hotel (then the tallest building in Dallas), built by beer baron Adolphus Busch, located on Commerce Street, catty-corner from his other hotel, The Oriental (the darker building in the center, with the distinctive top-knot on its northwest corner). The Praetorian Building (on Main) — a previous “tallest building in Dallas” — is the still tall-ish white building, second from the right.
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The third portion (at the top) shows, I believe, Wood Street, looking east. The Post Office tower on Commerce can be seen at the far left. At the top, to the right of Wood Street (at S. Harwood) is the still-familiar sight of the First Presbyterian Church dome (brand new — the paint inside and out was probably still wet when this photograph was taken); to the right of the dome is the also-still-standing (and beautiful!) Scottish Rite Temple, also brand new.
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The final portion shows what I guess would be considered the northern edge of The Cedars? I love old photos that show residences in what we now consider the Central Business District. It’s so weird seeing these houses! The hulking turreted building at the top is Butler Brothers (built in 1910-11) at 500 S. Ervay; it later changed its name to the Merchandise Mart, and it is now undergoing renovation.
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Panoramic photograph by Jno. J. Johnson, from the Library of Congress, here.
For those who want to play along at home, a 1919 street map of the area can be found at the ever-indispensable Portal to Texas History, here.
Click pictures for much larger images.
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Copyright © 2015 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
[…] opening at the end of 1912. (A previous post devoted to the full panoramic photo can be accessed here.) The Oriental Hotel, with its rounded topknot, can be seen across Commerce from its sister hotel […]
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In the 1919 map of Dallas is Ervay street misspelled as Evay?
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Yeah, there are weird spellings on some of those old maps. One of them has “Harwood” as “Hardwood” — it can be very distracting.
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[…] be seen here (the full photo can be seen in the post “New Dallas Skyline — 1913,” here). I’m just going to chalk it up to being another weird image — kind of like the […]
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[…] Photo is titled “Dallas Sky Line, January 1st, 1914,” taken by Jno. J. Johnson; it is from the George W. Cook Dallas/Texas Image Collection, DeGolyer Library, Central University Libraries, Southern Methodist University, and it can be viewed here. (I’ve manipulated the color.) The photograph may have been taken from the roof of the still-standing Butler Brothers building, about where the City Hall now stands, looking north. (Johnson’s photo of the 1913 skyline can be seen here.) […]
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[…] Source info on black-and-white panoramic photo detail is at the original post, “‘New Dallas Skyline’ — 1913,” here. […]
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The houses in the Cedars were beautiful, what is weird is seeing afterwards and what happened to them that we are stuck with today. Only Dallas Heritage Village area has endured albeit not in it’s original state either, and now the Ambassador hotel has burned and demolished. I’m sure you have seen MacDonalds (1986) book.
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